Steven > Recent Status Updates

I only read 20% of it. It's an interesting story so far, but I can tell it's epic fantasy because every chapter is from a different character's point of view, and we're up to at least a dozen story lines I have to keep track of, changing gears and perspectives every ten pages. I don't enjoy doing that. So I'm not going to read it. It's the same reason I'm not finishing Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive.

I think my favorite of Hardy's commentary so far is on Alma 28 and 29, which I've just completed.

I was probably not the intended audience for this book.
The most exciting thing so far was a footnote recommending someone else's work on page 134: "The fascinating work of Emma Percy has taught me to think in parallels between mothering and priestly ministry. See her What Clergy Do: Especially When it Looks like Nothing (London: SPCK, 2014) and Mothering as a Metaphor for Ministry (Franham: Ashgate, 2014)."

I just couldn't

I'm going to stop reading. I don't find it funny or engaging. I don't like any of the characters, either.

Just finished 2 Maccabees, also known as "Maccabees, the good parts version." Really bloodthirsty stuff!

I'm just about to finish 1 Maccabees. It's an interesting history that seems to be very secular. It doesn't credit success to righteousness or divine intervention the way the rest of the Old Testament does.

I'm 49 chapters through the Wisdom of Ben Sira. While he has plenty of good advice that would help someone navigate life, he's also a misogynist, a xenophobe, and prejudiced in a bunch of other ways. I'm glad this isn't canon, but its attitudes are sadly still reflected in a lot of people's beliefs.

Still working my way through the wisdom of Ben Sira. The comments about fools throughout read like dumb blond / Polack jokes: "7 Trying to teach a fool is like gluing a broken pot back together, like waking someone out of a deep sleep. 8 Explaining something to a fool is like explaining it to a sleepy person; when you have finished, he'll say, "What was that again?"

I'm not actually reading this edition. I'm reading the GNT online.
The differences and similarities between the Apocrypha and the canonical KJV Bible are entertaining. The story of Esther in the Apocrypha sounds like it got fancied up over a couple of generations of retellings before the Apocrypha version. And the wisdom literature has some really questionable wisdom mixed in with the good stuff, especially Ben Sira.

So far, the development of doctrine appears to be based on wordplay.

The first 7 chapters of this book are summed up in the last paragraph of chapter 7. Having read that paragraph and having read the chapters, I much preferred the paragraph!

I'm still in the introduction. So far it seems that the statement I've often heard that "Hinduism is not a religion, but rather a philosophy" is at least in part due to its scripture explicitly deriving from rational speculation and not from some divine revelation of truth that humans couldn't have come up with on our own.

I should point out that this book is much more true to the experience of my two oldest brothers, who were the ones who actually did all the programming and hacking in our house. I watched them like I watched movies, sitting on the floor after school in the computer room, trying to figure out what exactly they were doing and sure I'd never understand it.

I'm enjoying this so far, despite its swearing. It's written like a long-form magazine article with just enough real-world references to make it feel non-fiction even though it's fictional. It references all the right nostalgic pop culture that made up my childhood, but not in a cheap way. It feels like the author just grew up in the same niche that I did. He understands the loneliness and also pride of being outcast

I just finished Dune, the first book. I thought it was great! Perhaps I'm enjoying it more because I'm living in the Middle East and speak Arabic, so I didn't have to flip to the glossary ten times every page... I think it's an excellent novel. Five stars for the first book!

I started reading this book because it was recommended in the Ox and the Sheepherder as good guide to Christian meditation and self-denial. So far, all I've learned is that these monks had so many Pharisaical rules and strictures that it would be next to impossible to live in one of those monasteries and avoid adopting the same overly legal approach to Christian living. Even the white handbook wasn't this bad!

I really liked the story Shoals by Mary Rosenblum.